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Thursday, May 27, 2010

Quinoa Zucchini Waffles

In high school, my English teacher had us write a "found" poem for The Great Gatsby. The idea was to look through the book and find words, sentences, and phrases we liked, and rearrange them to form our own poem. It was a fun idea. F. Scott Fitzgerald had already done the work. I just played around with the structure. I like to think of these waffles then as "found" waffles. I took Carol Fenster's muffins and quick bread mix from her book, Gluten-Free Quick & Easy, found ingredients in my fridge that looked fun, and played around.

My first batch had eggs and canola oil, but I found them to be too heavy. The second batch was eggless and I used fruit puree to replace the oil. While I wouldn't call them fluffy, they were certainly lighter. The sunflower seeds and quinoa gives it a delicious crunch, while the zucchini, like with zucchini bread, is not even noticeable. And with the addition of molasses to the recipe, they're so sweet you don't need to add syrup. I ate these like a piece of toast, although I did add sliced banana to them as I used to do with my whole-grain bread.

Spoon evenly onto waffle iron and cook, in batches, according to the iron's instructions.

Serves 8 (2 squares each)

Carol's Muffin and Quick Bread Mix from Gluten-Free Quick & Easy
This mix makes a large batch. I've had a big canister of this in the fridge for months and finally decided it was time to use it. Note that these waffles are not sugar-free, which most of my recipes lately have been. They are, however, dairy-free and egg-free.

I bet these freeze well. AND here's a tip for other ways to use waffles - as sandwich holders! And yet another I learned from Karina (The Gluten Free Goddess) - once the waffles are cooled, blend them in the food processor and freeze the crumbs. Use whenever bread crumbs are called for.